


every little thing

by idlesong



Category: NCT (Band)
Genre: Alternate Universe - College/University, Banter, Crushes, Fluff, Friendship, Humor, M/M, Pining, everyone's a lil bit of a smartass but jeno, mentions of underage drinking and drug use
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-04-21
Updated: 2018-04-21
Packaged: 2019-04-25 15:40:52
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 7,641
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/14381757
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/idlesong/pseuds/idlesong
Summary: If Donghyuck had a dollar for every time he didn’t make a fool of himself in front of Jaemin, he’d have enough for one (1) item from the dollar store.





	every little thing

**Author's Note:**

> i outlined this in [mel's](http://twitter.com/nahyuck) DMs the first time i spoke to her! this is dedicated to her and my floormate who locked herself out three times in one hour.

Donghyuck's first year of university has been as good as can be. It's the first time he's lived away from home and, although he admits he misses his mom from time to time, the freedom has been nice. He's made many mistakes—matching Renjun's shots that one night when Renjun has a much higher tolerance for alcohol, falling asleep overnight in a library instead of studying, attempting to get through an entire semester's worth of lectures in one day, just to name a few.

But he has no regrets. Regret is stupid, Donghyuck has always thought. It's a complete waste of time. After all, why continue to dwell on the unchangeable past? There was nothing that could be done.

He gives Jaehyun a similar spiel when the upperclassman is groggily walking in the direction of Donghyuck's room to open it with his master key, one instance of many this year of Donghyuck locking himself out. "Nothing to be done but I can still regret the fact that you're so forgetful, you little shit," Jaehyun grumbles, swiping his keycard down Donghyuck's lock so it flashes green with entry. "Next time I’m making you walk to residence services."

"Goodnight, hyung! You're the best RA ever!" Donghyuck calls out melodiously as Jaehyun stumbles away, earning him a stern shush because he's being far too loud during quiet hours. There's no way in hell he would ever make that walk in the middle of the night, considering it meant having to walk past the older buildings that were purported to be haunted.

"Got locked out again?" a voice asks, coming from the opposite side of the hall where the bathrooms are located. Jaemin is in sweats and a shirt featuring a band Donghyuck's definitely not cool enough to listen to, and is holding his nighttime toiletries in his hands.

"Yep," Donghyuck says to his next-door neighbour, simply nodding his head once or twice before giving him a curt goodnight and seeing himself inside his own room.

Upon being reunited with his landfill of a bedroom once more, Donghyuck flops onto his bed belly first, exhaling a long sigh into his pillow. He didn't feel regret, with one exception. Never had he had an interaction with Jaemin that he felt proud of.

From the very first day he had thought his neighbour was _so_ fucking cute, someone whose smile could make the most boring of floor meetings tolerable. During frosh week they had been awkward quasi-friends with two other floormates, Renjun and Jeno, before Donghyuck had gotten close with the former and Jaemin with the latter until they split up into pairs for good.

Donghyuck and Jaemin never really moved beyond that semi-acquaintance semi-friend stage. They were friendly enough, nodding to each other in the halls and making small talk in the elevator, but Donghyuck finds himself helplessly tongue-tied around him. He’s whipped, as much as he hates to admit it.

Because it’s so unlike Donghyuck to trip over his words like this. Often he would grip his snide remarks and clever observations firmly, holding them tight to his teeth and unleashing them when the time was right. Around Jaemin his control went kaput. It’s like his words were just learning to walk, wobbly and unsure with inevitable stumbles.

Renjun gave him nothing but grief for it, laughing at how someone as loudmouthed as Donghyuck could be shut up with one glance from Jaemin. But it wasn't _that_ bad, Donghyuck would swear. Sometimes it just took a little while for the courtesies to dissipate. ("An entire semester is a little while?" "Shut up.")

So maybe it was taking a little longer than planned. Maybe there wasn't a plan to speak of. Maybe Donghyuck could barely speak. It didn't matter, because if there was anything he was sure of, it was that he never loses.

Enough was enough, Donghyuck resolves. He wouldn't let the year pass without making Jaemin realize the Perfect Mess that was Lee Donghyuck was perfect for him. Or at least a worthwhile enough person to go out with on one (1) date. Two if he was willing, but Donghyuck wouldn't push it.

 

"So what is your plan exactly?" Renjun asks before shoving a forkful of peas into his mouth. Both of them having had very realistic expectations for themselves, neither of their earliest classes were anytime before noon, leaving Renjun to be Donghyuck's lunch buddy all year. Their dining hall isn't unlike a high school cafeteria’s, an observation which initially made Donghyuck uneasy because he had been so often ostracized in the one back home. (Turns out being the queer kid still wasn't okay sometimes.)

The campus cafeteria, he's come to realize, is much different in that no one gives a fuck about you in the first place. There were always students catching up on readings, doing problem sets, falling asleep in their cereal. This little corner of the university felt like a microcosm of the rest. A place where anonymity meant room for individuality: Donghyuck could be himself without feeling like he was taking up too much space.

The first person he had come out to in university had been Renjun, in the most nonchalant of manners by saying that Jaehyun's dimples made him look really handsome when he smiled. "Too bad all you do is make him grimace," Renjun had said back, and Donghyuck knew then that things would be different from now on. Different in the best of ways.

"I don't have a plan-plan, but I have some ideas," Donghyuck nods. The pizza slices on his plate had been eaten long ago, their crusts remaining as proof of their ephemeral existence. At the start of every week Donghyuck resolved to eat healthier, but the freshly baked pizza being carted into the cafeteria always convinced him otherwise. Freshman 15 wasn’t a totally unreasonable concept, but Donghyuck also thought that he was too cute for such a thing to overtake his power.

"Your ideas being...?" Renjun had become a good friend of Donghyuck's, one who got along with him not just out of convenience but out of genuine camaraderie. Speaking to him so often exponentially improved his Korean, he said, since pretty much all he and Donghyuck did was talk. The decision to attend university in Korea had been a difficult one, but during one of their wilder parties Renjun admitted to Donghyuck that he was one of the big reasons why it was so worthwhile. The two of them had dissolved into weeping in a warm embrace and passionately did a karaoke duet to A Whole New World shortly thereafter.

"I'm going to charm him with my boyish looks and sly wit," Donghyuck declares. If this was his plan then it was already partially underway, if one considered _not_ alienating Jaemin entirely by say, drunkenly singing to him outside his window (which Donghyuck did, albeit to a fortunately closed one) a step in the plan at all. Renjun looks unconvinced by what Donghyuck thinks is both foolproof and ingenious. There was no need for his friend's full approval as of yet. He would surely get there eventually. And if he never did, screw his approval! He didn't need it anyway.

"Why don't you...I don't know, talk to him like a normal human being?" Renjun suggests, the entirely reasonable proposition of his making Donghyuck scoff.

"I try, dummy. And each time I put my foot in my mouth." A simpering buffoon, he became. He wasn't ashamed to admit it. So what if he got weak in the knees for cute boys? At least he knew his own (few) flaws. "But seriously, from now on, I will not make a fool of myself in front of Jaemin again."

"Bet?" Renjun challenges.

"Bet," Donghyuck promises solemnly.

"Yo, Jaemin!" Renjun calls out, having spotted their floormate entering the dining hall just a moment ago.

"I hate you I hate you I hate—Hey, Jaemin!" Donghyuck chirps, sliding his own tray closer to leave room for his.

"Hey guys," he greets them, wearing that smile that could rival the sun. Donghyuck would fight the sun for him. "Midterm season, huh? It's really killing me."

"Yeah, it feels like it'll never end," Renjun sighs. "Don't you think so, Hyuck?"

The two of them then look at him with expectant eyes, and Donghyuck wishes, hopes, and prays that The Force he's been training his whole life will finally make an appearance so he can throttle Renjun right now. He considers throttling him with his bare hands, but that would be far too messy.

“Yep,” Donghyuck says curtly, getting to his feet to refill his water glass and definitely not because he needs to walk away to collect his bearings and think of something super impressive to say to Jaemin. However, Donghyuck’s glass slips out of his hands and, while thankfully made of plastic, falls straight into the soup he’d decided was too bland to eat and soaks the front of his shirt with broth.

Jaemin helpfully reaches for some napkins. Renjun tries the absolute least to stifle his laughter and chokes on a pea.

 

It’s a Sunday morning, post-breakfast, an ideal time to laze around for all those who decided to forgo studying for a few more hours. Donghyuck and Renjun’s stomachs are full of bacon and eggs and the strangely tiny apples on the dining hall tables when Renjun forces Donghyuck to initiate some sort of game plan. Donghyuck (reluctantly, begrudgingly) agrees.

“H-Hey! H…Hey, Jae—Jaemin, hi!” Donghyuck says in a loud whisper to himself, in the midst of an unproductive rehearsal to greet someone he’s known for five months. He and Renjun have been in front of Donghyuck’s own room for about five minutes now, with constant verbal assurances from Donghyuck that they would knock on Jaemin’s door _very_ soon, just as soon as Donghyuck could reassert control over his befuddled mind.

“You’re so lame,” Renjun says exasperatedly, very unceremoniously knocking on Jaemin’s door with the side of his foot, his hands full with Donghyuck’s Nintendo Switch. “Yo, Jaemin! We’re gonna play Mario Kart in the common room, do you wanna join?”

“Sure!” Jaemin calls back, and Renjun turns to Donghyuck to look at him with raised, I-told-you-so eyebrows. Having heard some of the commotion outside, Jeno, too, sticks his head out of his door across from Jaemin’s, sporting his usual bright expression.

“Do you have a fourth controller?” he asks, and Renjun waves said controller over his head just as Jaemin comes out of his room. He’s just dressed comfortably, a hoodie with their university’s logo on it pulled over his head, and Donghyuck dumbly thinks he might be in love.

Everything about Jaemin is just so _charming_ , from his barely touched bedhead to his baggy sweatpants to the pair of glasses he almost exclusively wore around the dorm. Strings hung from their temples, and while Donghyuck had snorted and thought they made Jaemin look like a librarian when he first saw them, now he thinks they’re the most appealing pair of spectacles he’s ever been blessed to be seen through.

About halfway through their penultimate game in their third tournament, Donghyuck is shaking. It’s taking every fibre of his brain and body to not let his competitive instincts kick in while they play, to not burst into a barrage of cuss words that would in turn make Jaehyun come out of his room to cuss at Donghyuck for being too loud.

After all, Donghyuck couldn’t let Jaemin see how big of an asshole he could get during video games, and _especially_ not during Mario Kart. Whenever Renjun throws a red shell his way (and it’s many, many times) Donghyuck has to clench every muscle in his body not to scream in frustration. Whenever Renjun’s Tanooki Mario passes Donghyuck’s Koopa Troopa, Donghyuck wants to die.

By the end of the tournament, their accumulated points display Renjun having exactly one point more than Donghyuck to be in first place, with Jaemin’s Pink Yoshi in a modest fifth and Jeno in dead last. Bless his heart, Jeno’s Yoshi kept falling off the edges.

Donghyuck can feel his head throbbing with frustration. The controller is set down on his lap for a moment so he can rub his temples, when someone else’s palm draws circles on his back.

“Everything okay?” Jaemin asks with some concern, causing Donghyuck to immediately recoil away to the other side of the couch.

“Everything’s fine!” Donghyuck assures him, for once being glad that the redness in his face was already visible after the stress of coming second.

Renjun, on the couch perpendicular to the one Donghyuck and Jaemin are sitting on, snorts. The whole time he had been gleefully watching his friend dying on the inside. Not only did he get to beat Donghyuck, but he also did so without having to endure his friend’s nature of being a sore loser (although his being a sore winner was also pretty bad).

“Good game, guys. Thanks for letting us play,” Jeno says, cheery despite having been absolute trash at Mario Kart. “I have to go back to studying though. Got more exams this week.”

“Yeah, same here,” Jaemin sighs, gently tossing his controller onto the couch cushion and getting to his feet. “Let me know next time you play though. I had fun.”

Renjun nods and waves goodbye. Donghyuck falls to his side and assumes the fetal position.

 

So maybe trying to spend some quality time with Jaemin through a friendly competition wasn’t ideal for someone like Donghyuck. It was okay; just because he was perfect doesn’t mean his plans would be. They all had to be on hold for the moment while midterms were in full swing, but Donghyuck was adamant that when they were over, it would be over for Jaemin.

Not _over_ as in Donghyuck would hurt him or anything, just that it’d be over for his heart. Or something. Donghyuck has been buried in his books and his brain’s been fried as a result. It’s been like that for everyone, he’s noticed, the dormitory devoid of its usual buzz and chatter.

Not that he’d know if it was even there, considering how often he had been in the library lately. He liked going to the law faculty’s the most. It had wide windows, ones that faced the sun and flooded the vicinity with a lot of natural light, conditions much preferable to working under the fluorescent lights of the other libraries. Plus, it has more tables than it has cubicles, therefore much more space to spread out all his damn stuff so long as none of the actual law students gave him the side eye.

Donghyuck has two exams to go this week, and as much as he’d like to sit and scheme a variety of plots to further his life goals, he also needs to study to play the long game. Keeping his GPA up was important! His scholarship was riding on it!

But then he thinks about how fluttery Jaemin’s eyelashes are or how he playfully picks on Jeno or how the gruffness of his drowsy “good morning” voice made Donghyuck swoon. One time he saw Jaemin slathering chapstick over his lips and spent a good hour or so thinking about kissing them. It goes without saying that the most minuscule digressions of thought led to Donghyuck daydreaming with his chin in the palm of his hand.

Donghyuck is thinking of risking it all, whatever that means. Whatever it takes to get this boy who is as cute as he is unattainable to go from his floormate to friend to maybe possibly potentially boyfriend. He’s _really_ stewing in his pot of misery when a cough interrupts him. His head lifts with some disgruntled fervour, already gathering his papers into a neater pile to make room for whichever incredibly considerate asshole had the audacity to ask him to share a public space.

It’s Jaemin who’s taking a seat across from him, greeting Donghyuck with a silent smile and hello. Just the simple upturn of his lips makes Donghyuck want to cry. And kiss him. But mostly cry because he can’t kiss him. There was only one immediate solution, and that was to slip headphones over his ears to try and ignore that his object of affection was right in front of him.

It takes all of his willpower to pay attention to his textbook instead of looking up to stare at Jaemin’s face with adoration. Half an hour passes before Donghyuck flips to the next page.

 

Fortunately, _some_ studying did get done, although Donghyuck would be lying if he said he was immediately able to hit his stride. Once he did, he probably didn’t take full advantage of it either, because as soon as Jaemin began to pack up his things, so did he. How much time had passed since Jaemin sat down was not as important as Donghyuck realizing this would be an ideal opportunity to speak to him. The walk back to the dorm wasn’t incredibly long, but it would still be enough for Donghyuck to implant some idea in Jaemin’s mind of how cool he could be.

“How are midterms going?” Jaemin asks as they leave the building, very easily hijacking the entire plan Donghyuck had already mapped out in his head of where to begin the conversation and how to conveniently lead it into a productive direction. Small talk wasn’t really a part of that equation, but he coughs and responds anyway.

“Going okay, if you consider constantly being on the verge of tears okay,” Donghyuck says, and Jaemin laughs, even though it wasn’t _that_ funny. In that moment Donghyuck swears he will change the entire trajectory of his career path to that of a standup comedian if it means he can make Jaemin laugh like that again. The laughter bolsters his confidence a little, edging it closer to its usual height, and they manage to get through an entire conversation without any stumbling.

“I’m telling you, my bio TA was _so_ ready to fight me any moment,” Jaemin says.

“You probably deserved it,” Donghyuck quips back, to which Jaemin playfully shoves his shoulder into a passing pedestrian.

Both first years quickly turn to apologize but Donghyuck gives pause upon recognizing said person’s face. It was Doyoung, one of the head choristers at the university’s revered choral society of which Donghyuck was apart.

Doyoung was a bit of a hardass on him, understandably so because Donghyuck was a bit of a smartass back. And whether it was the stress of midterms hanging over the entire campus or an accumulative series of snarky comments reaching its boiling point he wasn’t sure, but Doyoung is positively glaring at Donghyuck with his arms folded over his chest.

“You just missed practice, Donghyuck,” Doyoung says sternly, and Donghyuck looks down at his watch with some confusion. Practice? Fuck. Practice. He had been too distracted by trying not to be distracted by Jaemin to remember he had choir practice.

“I’m so sorry, hyung. I’ll make sure—“

“Competition season is coming up. You should be practicing as much as possible.” Doyoung lets out an aggravated sigh. “Get your shit together, Donghyuck. There are a million tenors out there that could easily replace you.”

Donghyuck, although feeling genuinely apologetic for his actions, knows it not to be _too_ serious. Doyoung chews someone out like this every week. What was actually embarrassing was that he was getting chewed out right in front of Jaemin, being chided for his lack of responsibility and commitment in front of someone he so desperately wanted to impress. There was colour rising in his face for sure, and he knew it wasn’t cute.

“And another thing—“ Doyoung continues, and Donghyuck holds his breath in anticipation.

“I’m sorry, I know this isn’t really my business,” Jaemin interjects, startling both Doyoung and Donghyuck. “Be a little easier on him? We’re both in first year and still learning to juggle all of our commitments, you know? And for the record I can say as his neighbour that he practices a lot and it’s the only time when I won’t file a noise complaint against him.” He throws Donghyuck a smile after saying that and Donghyuck wants to melt into the damn pavement.

Doyoung doesn’t seem that impressed, but Jaemin’s resolute tone makes him sigh and nod his head in semi-defeat. “Fine, I’m sorry,” he says, and Donghyuck quickly utters an apology back. “But do please warm up _properly_ before practice. Your voice cracking just delays the rest of us.”

Donghyuck quickly nods in reply and bows his head slightly as Doyoung walks past the two of them. Getting stood up for by Jaemin makes his chest feel warm despite the rest of the mortification he feels towards the entire situation. They walk back to the dorm in complete silence, probably more comfortable on Jaemin’s part than Donghyuck’s, until Donghyuck quietly says thank you before holing himself up in his room.

 

That wasn’t a good enough show of appreciation, Donghyuck has been thinking for a little while. He knew Jaemin wasn’t really too confrontational—if all the “please quiet down” notes slipped under his door (as opposed to just knocking and telling him to shut up like Renjun would) were any indication. It must not have been in his regular repertoire of behaviour to say something on Donghyuck’s behalf.

Donghyuck really wants to do something a little more meaningful, but not _so_ meaningful that it tips into being reflective of this unrequited crush of his that’s only growing deeper and deeper (read: worse and worse). Not wanting to overthink it for a change, Donghyuck stops by the convenience store after class and buys some peanut butter cups.

Simple enough, he presumed. He remembers receiving some on Valentine’s Day one year of elementary school and feeling really happy about it. They were a nice little luxury. A small gift of chocolate would be an appropriate show of appreciation, and not big enough at all to throw Jaemin off or make him consider any ulterior motives, although if he did, Donghyuck sincerely hopes that he thinks of them positively and would make a blatant move that Donghyuck had yet to make himself and—

Donghyuck shuts his thoughts up by just quickly taping the peanut butter cups to Jaemin’s door (conveniently 10 minutes before he was due to return) with an attached note that said “enjoy :)” and scurrying back into his own room.

About an hour later, when Donghyuck emerges and sees that the chocolate’s been taken down, he has an Imbecile’s Revelation: he didn’t sign his name on the note.

 

At a biweekly floor meeting a few days later, Jaehyun gives everyone a reminder that there is someone with a severe peanut allergy on the floor. “Therefore if we can refrain from leaving cryptic messages attached to Reese’s Pieces,” he says with a sigh, glancing down at the crumpled sheet of lined paper on which he wrote down the meeting’s agenda. “Let’s do that. This is supposed to be a safe space, or whatever. If I see more bullying I’ll kick your ass.”

Jaemin is looking uncomfortable during this part of the meeting, his gaze locked on his restless, tapping feet stuffed into a pair of worn-out slippers. Donghyuck wants to die. He hopes his handwriting isn’t recognizable.

 

Renjun loses his shit when he hears what happened, doubled over in laughter, head hanging off of his bed with his face covered by both hands. “Oh my god,” he gasps, close to tears. “I _thought_ it was weird that someone would do that to him. It seemed so spiteful.”

“It wasn’t _spiteful_ , it was _loving_ ,” Donghyuck groans, sitting cross-legged on the floor as he tips his head back to rest it beside Renjun’s. “I totally forgot about his allergy.”

“Yeah, it wasn’t like we had a long talk about being aware of these things at the beginning of both semesters,” Renjun retorts, patting Donghyuck’s head in a manner the latter could only describe as condescending.

“You say that like I pay attention during meetings,” Donghyuck says.

“No, I say that _knowing_ you don’t pay attention unless Jaehyun says something you can make a dick joke about,” Renjun says, flicking his forehead. “Anyway, you’re an idiot.”

“Maybe. I don’t know, maybe the universe is telling me something,” Donghyuck says, just as a knock is heard on the door. Renjun pinches his cheek to tell him to answer it, which he does with some grumbling.

“Oh hey,” Jeno says from the other side, slightly surprised to see Donghyuck but smiling nevertheless. Renjun calls out a greeting from his bed, waving his hand as he gets to his feet.

“You wanna go study now?” Renjun asks, to which Jeno nods his head. “Let me get my stuff.”

Donghyuck looks back to him, then Jeno, with curiosity. Since when were they close enough to hang out? Since when did Renjun voluntarily study? Since when did Jeno look at Renjun with so much adoration?

When Jeno notices how Donghyuck’s looking at him he shifts his weight between his feet awkwardly. Renjun, after having packed his backpack and slung it over his shoulder, slaps Donghyuck on the back before stepping in front of him to squeeze Jeno’s hand.

“Yeah, this is a thing now,” Renjun explains. Donghyuck’s jaw drops. “He shot his shot, unlike someone else I know.”

“It would’ve happened earlier,” Jeno says sheepishly. “But I thought _you_ two were dating for a long time.”

Donghyuck gags at the prospect, and also this. This was all wrong. Jeno did _not_ ask out a floormate before Donghyuck did.

“Why’s he so shocked?” Donghyuck hears Jeno whisper to Renjun.

“Dating a floormate is gross—“ Donghyuck starts.

“—He’s a homophobe,” Renjun says.

 

One exam left, then Donghyuck swore he’d make a real move. Just his one last most important psychology midterm to write before he’d do something for real. It’s imperative that he crush it, so he can at least have one aspect of his life going as well as he’d like it to. The last few nights have been filled with reviewing notes and scouring lecture slides and reading case studies about fundamentalism until his eyes threaten to roll out of his head.

There was just more night of hell to go before Donghyuck attained freedom. Or perhaps more aptly, freedumb. He would be free to be dumb.

When that thought pops into his mind, he wipes the sleep from his eyes and decides he needs to slam his last Red Bull of midterm season. There are none in his fridge so he’ll need to trek to the 24-hour grocery store. Thank god for that place and its ability to serve Donghyuck’s midnight caffeine needs.

As soon as his door shuts behind him, Donghyuck pauses, feeling for his wallet in his pant pockets. He huffs out a sigh, realizing he must have left it in his room. He groans upon realizing his wallet also had his key card.

No matter though, he thinks, this is just a short delay. As much as he hated doing so, Jaehyun would never refuse Donghyuck if he asked to be let in—

Unless the small whiteboard attached to the front of Jaehyun’s door has a messily scrawled “I’VE BEEN UP FOR 36 HOURS STRAIGHT IF YOU KNOCK BEFORE NOON I’LL KILL YOU”.

Well, midterm season must be getting to Jaehyun too. Donghyuck didn’t feel like getting dropkicked across campus today, so he decides to take his chances with walking to residence services. It would be about twenty minutes round trip which was annoying, but it was still just another small mishap. His exam was at 4 p.m tomorrow so he could afford to stay up quite late. Walking in his slippers would be a nuisance but that was okay too. Everything was fine. Donghyuck is trying to keep positive, because another setback at this point might make him lose his mind.

A setback such as Renjun and Jeno stumbling out of the elevator doors. It’s not that they’re together—Donghyuck is absolutely happy for the two of them—but that they’re absolutely soaked.

“We almost died,” Renjun says, shivering all over as Jeno runs to his room to fetch them towels. “Whatever you do, don’t go out there.”

“But…I got locked out,” Donghyuck whines, just as Jeno returns to wrap a large towel around Renjun’s shoulders. “Do either of you have an umbrella?”

Renjun and Jeno both give him an apologetic shake of their heads.

“…Fuck.”

 

Donghyuck walks from one end of the hall to the other about four times before he finally pauses in front of Jaemin’s door. He raises his fist to the door, ready to knock, and puts it down again. This process happens a few more times before he finally builds up the courage to rap his knuckles against the wood.

“Just a second!” Jaemin calls from the other side, and Donghyuck can hear some music being turned down before he appears before him.

“Hey,” Donghyuck says, already breathless at how _adorable_ Jaemin looks, even visibly fatigued by the late nights and long hours of studying like the rest of them. “Could I borrow an umbrella?”

“What could possibly be so important that you’d go out in this storm?” Jaemin asks with a soft laugh.

“Red bull,” Donghyuck answers pathetically.

“Not worth it,” Jaemin shakes his head. “But sorry, I don’t have an umbrella for you. I do have coffee though, if you need it.”

“Coffee wouldn’t help me much either,” Donghyuck frowns. “I also locked myself out of my room with all my psych notes inside.”

“And…Jaehyun’s locked himself away until noon, hasn’t he?” Jaemin tuts.

“Yep,” Donghyuck nods, realizing the extent of how miserably his night has gone now that he’s verbalized it. Because he’s Jaemin though, and because he’s impossibly nice, he just smiles at him apologetically, as though he’s the cause of all this pain. (Although he has caused some of it, Donghyuck will admit.)

“What psych class are you taking?” Jaemin asks.

“Just psych 100,” Donghyuck says. “My exam’s tomorrow.”

“I’m studying for that too,” Jaemin says. “Are you in the 10 a.m lecture?”

“Fuck no—“ Donghyuck’s response is involuntarily quick, the prospect of taking that early of a class laughable. “I’m in the 6 p.m one.”

“Ah. Well, do you want to come in?”

“What?”

Jaemin laughs at Donghyuck’s stunned expression, pulling the door farther open to welcome him inside. “We can study together. I was gonna be up for a few more hours anyway,” he says. “And you can crash here.”

“You wouldn’t mind?” Donghyuck asks, biting his lip.

Jaemin shakes his head. “Not at all.”

Donghyuck steps into the room, observing the surroundings he had only ever viewed in passing. Its layout was identical to his own, but much tidier, which wasn’t difficult to achieve considering his room could be labelled a genuine disaster zone from time to time. There were some posters hung up on the walls, mostly of bands he only knew the names of, and one of an anime Donghyuck loved as a kid.

“Do you still want a coffee?” Jaemin asks, switching on his kettle. “It’s the instant kind but it still has caffeine.”

“I thought we weren’t allowed to use kettles in our rooms?” Donghyuck replies with a sly smile, although he only learned about this rule himself because of the time he had blown a fuse in his own room. (He had come to know the limitations of his domain by blow drying his hair while making cup ramen and having his speakers going.)

“And I thought we weren’t allowed to smoke weed in our rooms?” Jaemin throws back, and the unexpected snark throws off Donghyuck for a moment before he breaks into laughter. His floormate slides a chair his way, and Donghyuck sits on it crosslegged as Jaemin returns to his place on his bed, notes, textbook, and laptop scattered over his covers.

“Touché,” Donghyuck snorts. “You could’ve gotten me into a lot of shit for that.”

“I’m no snitch,” Jaemin says. “I only called the RAs on you one time because you and Renjun were screaming in the middle of the night. I thought something had gone wrong.”

Donghyuck just laughs nervously at that, having tried very hard for a long while to forget about the time when he accidentally set fire to a trash can. It was so embarrassing that he would prefer not to tell Jaemin, at least not yet.

“But no, I wouldn’t want to get my dumb neighbour kicked out of residence. I’d miss out on too many antics,” Jaemin says, resting his chin on a closed fist. “Jeno goes to bed at like, 9:30 every night and the craziest thing he’s done all year is ask out Renjun.”

“Aw, you think I’m _dumb_?” Donghyuck answers coyly. “Yeah, imagine dating a floormate right? Gross.” He keeps his tone sarcastic, for the protection of his own feelings more than anything.

“I mean, as long as they’re not making out in any of the common spaces, I don’t see a problem with it,” Jaemin hums, eyes shifting to the notes in front of him. “Anyway, what do you want to review first?”

“Language acquisition?” Donghyuck asks, flipping ahead to the appropriate chapter in the textbook. Being this close to Jaemin is surprisingly comfortable. He doesn’t even flinch when the kettle shrieks, but he does shift back when Jaemin inches closer.

Baby steps, right?

 

When he had first set his alarm, Donghyuck thought it would be a _splendid_ idea to wake up to Gee every morning. But for the first time, he abhorred having to scramble to shut up _listen boy, my first love story_. It was a truly difficult task, considering how his phone had fallen between Jaemin’s bed and the wall in the middle of the night, and the song was halfway through its second verse by the time Donghyuck managed to shimmy his arm down far enough to silence it.

By the time he’s retrieved his phone, Jaemin’s already awake and humming along, picking up where the song left off. Donghyuck wants to die a little. He doesn’t remember how he fell asleep, but he remembers drowsily trying to quiz himself off Jaemin’s flashcards. Falling asleep next to Jaemin certainly hadn’t been the plan—he really hopes he hadn’t overstepped. He had _so_ meant to crash on the floor with a pillow.

“What time is it?” Jaemin asks groggily, half of his blanket folded over himself after Donghyuck must have passed out on the other side. God, he feels so bad.

“N-Noon,” Donghyuck says, pulling his knees up to his chest in an attempt to make himself as small as possible. This wasn’t his intention at all. He just wanted to study for his exam. He didn’t mean to spend a few sleep-deprived hours up with Jaemin and laughing about nothing due to the aforementioned sleep deprivation and actually getting a psych concept or two down in the process. Although now that he thought back to the previous night maybe he didn’t conduct himself so poorly after all. Sure, there was the odd occasion Donghyuck’s gaze lingered a little too long on Jaemin’s lips, but it was some good quality time well spent. He thinks.

“Wanna grab some lunch before the exam?” Jaemin smothers a yawn behind the side of his fist, lethargic mannerisms still endearing as ever to Donghyuck. The hood of his sweater hung half off his head, its attached strings tied into a neat little bow that had been done and undone multiple times throughout the course of the night prior. It was a nervous habit perhaps, or just something to keep his hands busy, but Donghyuck found it cute regardless.

“I’ll just see if Jaehyun’s up to let me into my room first,” Donghyuck nods, swinging his feet off the bed to stuff them into his slippers. “Meet you in like, fifteen minutes?”

“Sure,” Jaemin lazily smiles. “And Donghyuck?”

“Yeah?” Donghyuck turns his head back around, chest warm at the sinking knowledge that he had managed to not completely embarrass himself in front of Jaemin just this one time.

“You kick in your sleep.”

So close.

 

_psych exam marks are up!!!_

This latest text message from Jaemin is a digression from their conversation about their respective days, but Donghyuck doesn’t mind in the least. He’s completely forgotten about that exam, that first half of the semester even, until that very moment.

As far as Donghyuck was concerned, that exam eradicated itself from existence, in tangibility and in memory, as soon as he had handed it in. It wasn’t poorly done by any means—one of his best written midterms of the semester, he was fairly sure. Still, some unavoidable concern creeps up on him as he logs onto his school’s portal to view his results, a relieved sigh escaping his lips when he sees that he’s received an A.

 _BITCH! i did #that!_ he texts back, to which Jaemin responds with a thumbs up emoji followed by many variations of hearts, one after another making Donghyuck smile.

He had yet to ask Jaemin out, but he was still working himself up to do it. It was as reachable as ever now, with the two of them finally having become actual _friends_ following the “Night of Many Mistakes”, as Donghyuck referred to it in his head. The full title was the “Night of Many Mistakes and One Miracle” but it was far too long and Renjun would certainly make fun of its extension if Donghyuck ever said it out loud.

A knock on his door makes him rise from his desk chair to answer it, expecting it to be Renjun on the other side to ask if he wants to go to dinner. Instead, it’s Jaemin. While they had been more buddy-buddy as of late, it was more of a situation wherein he and Donghyuck could more comfortably hang out with Renjun and Jeno. Donghyuck felt like he could even holler a little louder while they played Mario Kart.

“Hey,” Donghyuck greets him coolly, trying to prop himself against the side of his doorframe in a Totally Casual way. “I didn’t know you were back.”

“I didn’t know you were either, but I heard the ‘whoop’ from my room,” Jaemin says.

“Are you going to file a formal noise complaint with Jaehyun?” Donghyuck asks, although it wouldn’t be the first time someone sincerely threatened him with that. It wasn’t his fault he hadn’t realized how loud his music was. If anything, he thought it was _too_ quiet the whole time, with how his headphones hadn’t been plugged into his speakers in the first place.

“Nah, do your firetruck impression all you want. It’s not quiet hours yet,” Jaemin says. “Wanna grab some dinner?”

“Yeah, bro, of course!” Donghyuck chirps with a quite confident nod, although he immediately regrets his choice of words as they leaves his mouth. _Bro?_ Jaemin’s gonna think Donghyuck just wants to be friends, or worse—Jaemin’s gonna think Donghyuck is _heterosexual_.

Just then Jeno and Renjun stick their heads out of the latter’s door across from them, wide smiles plastered on both their faces. “Did we just hear what we thought we did?” Jeno asks with a dumb happy expression. Donghyuck is confused, and the speed with which Jaemin whips his head around to them is surprisingly frantic.

“Did you finally ask him out?!” Renjun practically shrieks, the sound reverberating through the hallway and between Donghyuck’s reddening ears.

“No!” Donghyuck and Jaemin refute in unison, before looking to each other in shock.

“Oh god,” Renjun moans, putting his hand to his face. “Oh god, they’re both so dense.”

“You like _each_ _other_ , dummies,” Jeno stage-whispers, equally unimpressed. After he and Renjun started dating and revealed to each other their respective best friends’ hopeless crushes, perhaps it had been their responsibility to tell their friends about the situation, but neither of them had thought it would take _so_ long for them to realize their mutual feelings. Plus, saying anything felt like a breach of the Bro Code, words that would be typed out using the B button emoji.

“You like me?” Donghyuck asks, struck with a rare bout of speechlessness. When Renjun is halfway through another noise of complaint, Donghyuck hurriedly shoos him off with a wave of his hand. Jaemin doesn’t answer until Renjun’s door has shut.

“Yeah,” Jaemin admits, timidness apparent in his smile as he reaches to fiddle with the bow tied of his hoodie strings. “I’ve thought you were cute all year but you know, I just didn’t do anything. You’re so outgoing but you were always a little stiff to me so I never really knew how to approach you.”

“But you invited me in your room that time I got locked out,” Donghyuck sputters out, for some incomprehensible reason trying to decipher this thought process instead of accepting it plainly.

“I thought it’d be some, I don’t know, _opportunity_ to finally talk to you but then I just ended up explaining cognitive development or whatever to you all night,” Jaemin says, blush rising in his face. “I bored you to sleep too, god, I was so embarrassed.”

“Literally shut up right now,” Donghyuck says, putting his head in his hands. “I’ve been trying to figure out a way to ask you out since Frosh Week.”

“It’s true!” Renjun calls out from inside of his room and Donghyuck is almost certain that if he were to push open his friend’s door he’d be pushing right up against their eavesdropping ears pressed to the wood. It being locked and all, Donghyuck goes up to it and kicks it instead, hoping it was enough of a startle to get the nosy couple to stop.

“Well, you could ask me with your words using your mouth,” Jaemin deadpans. “That’s a pretty straightforward way I think.”

“Shut up,” Donghyuck repeats, laughing at his own stupidity. “Do you want to go out with me?”

Jaemin beams. “Yeah, bro, of course!” he chimes.

Donghyuck punches him in the shoulder.

 

It might have been naïve of Donghyuck to expect things to change. That one instance of being his usual Confident Gay™ self has yet to show itself again. He would always revert back to being a Panicked Gay™ around Jaemin. Jaemin would never let it go, of course, finding it funny to make Donghyuck squirm by sneaking up behind him and kissing his cheek in the halls or reaching for his hand underneath the dining hall tables. It was adorable, the way Donghyuck’s face still flared whenever he so much as made eye contact with him.

“You like me, right?” Jaemin asks, swinging their clasped together hands back and forth. Their spring break was rapidly approaching, and Donghyuck had already planned a barrage of things for them to do. Classes and choir had been keeping him especially busy lately, and he wants to make it up to Jaemin.

“Of course,” Donghyuck says, a little confusedly. They hadn’t approached the topic of definitive labels, the whole conversation of whether they were _b-b-boyfriends_ still intimidating to Donghyuck. But he liked him. He definitely really very much so liked Jaemin.

“And you’re taking me on a date right now?” Jaemin asks, tone not giving anything away about this line of questioning’s intentions. It’s not really like him to be reticent, and it’s making Donghyuck wary.

“Yeah. We’re going on a picnic,” Donghyuck says, patting his backpack filled with iced teas, triangle kimbap, and peanut-free snacks. “What’s up?”

“Why have you been so quiet?” Jaemin then asks, and Donghyuck laughs nervously.

“Because…I like you,” Donghyuck says, because it really is his only explanation. “Give me some time, I’ll get over it.”

“I think it’s cute when you’re all shy like this too. You don’t really act this way ever,” Jaemin says, releasing his grip on his hand to pet the back of his head. The act makes Donghyuck whine, and Jaemin laughs. “But I like you when you’re your usual self too.”

“I don’t want to mess up. There were a lot of signs that seemed to be telling me this wouldn’t work out between us, and I just want to be sure I don’t mess up,” Donghyuck admits. “I couldn’t go one day without something going wrong whenever I was around you.”

“You can relax, Hyuck,” Jaemin says, stopping in the middle of the otherwise unoccupied sidewalk to face him. “It’s just me.”

“No such thing as it being _just_ you,” Donghyuck mumbles, eyes closing reflexively when Jaemin leans in closer. He feels Jaemin’s lips press against him for just a moment, and it’s not the first time, but it doesn’t stop his heart from feeling like it’ll beat out of his chest.

“Is this a bad time to tell you that I think it’s going to rain?” Jaemin asks, and Donghyuck’s eyes fly open as his head tilts back to observe the clouds that have grown ominously grey.

“See? Something always goes wrong!” Donghyuck shouts, bottom lip jutting out. Jaemin just laughs and takes his hand again, turning the both of them around in the direction back to their dormitory.

“Hey, us picnicking in your room instead of the park doesn’t mean anything’s gone wrong,” Jaemin says, squeezing his hand. “I think you’ve done everything right.”

Donghyuck’s still not entirely convinced, but Jaemin proves he can hold his own in an argument. His smile is enough of a compelling point. Maybe Donghyuck could be wrong just this once. It would still support what he already knew to be true. His first year of university has been as good as can be.

**Author's Note:**

> thanks for reaching the end. ♡ love & support '00 line at all costs!! thanks to [zoo](http://twitter.com/dowootp) for kicking my ass into finishing this (whether she realized this or not). oh!! and also thanks to [ren](http://twitter.com/_chttphn) for her amazing dreamies playing mario kart headcanon. long story short 3lote blessed me ty ily.
> 
> [twitter](http://twitter.com/ten7s)  
> 


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